Nintendo Switch 2 Is Still Greatly Lacking With One Major Genre

Variety is one of the keys to a successful video game system. Having a wide swath of available titles undoubtedly helped the PS2 and Nintendo Switch ascend to all-time status. The Switch 2 is doing fine enough in this respect in its early days for the most part, but it truly needs to punch up more in at least one specific area: fighting games.

Fighting games have always been a semi-unsung hero of portable systems. While rarely the best way to play these games when compared to their console or PC counterparts, they often make up for it through their convenience. Being able to blast through a few rounds while on the toilet is the type of short-term commitment that portable systems thrive on. Of course, spending more time labbing combos and knocking out arcade ladders is usually an option, but fighting games get right to the action in a way that’s conducive to the burst sessions that are common with portable consoles.

The Switch 2 is currently lacking in this regard. Its Street Fighter 6 port is a solid way to experience the acclaimed fighter and can even interact with the other versions, but this shouldn’t be the lone big fighting game on the system. There aren’t even many other ports of other recent games on the horizon to speak of. Despite a potential retail listing from January and the controversies around its almost universally despised Season 2 update, there’s been no official word of Tekken 8 making its way to the Switch. The same goes for other fresh and more niche genre entries like Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and Hunter × Hunter: Nen × Impact.

New Games, Ports, and Updates Are Nintendo’s Way Into the FGC

There haven’t even been updates to existing fighting games on the Switch to take better advantage of the hardware. While retro collections and well-optimized games like Guilty Gear -Strive- don’t need much work, the same cannot be said for titles that stretched the hardware too far, like Mortal Kombat 1 (and, frankly, its predecessor MK11). Even with patches that got it to a reasonable state, MK1’s Switch version is clearly in need of more horsepower with its muddier textures and longer load times. NetherRealm Studios has even supported newer systems with its flashier upgrades of Injustice: Gods Among Us and Mortal Kombat 11 for the last two console cycles, but it’s unclear if MK1 will continue that trend, especially since the team has mostly pulled support in favor of its upcoming mystery title. The Switch 2 helps power through some of the lackluster port’s rough edges, but a native version (with cross-platform play) would undoubtedly be better.

Not even Nintendo is putting in the work with its own premier fighting game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. With over 36 million units sold, it is the third best-selling Switch game and deserves some sort of refresh for the newer Nintendo handheld hybrid. Updated visuals and faster load times (although the Switch 2 naturally improves them quite a bit) would be nice, but decent netcode is essential and is the biggest reason it needs a touch-up. Its current suboptimal online play severely hampers this game’s long-term prospects and is an easy selling point for those still grinding away at this crossover brawler. An Ultimate refresh also might help hold people over until a new Smash Bros. comes out, whenever that may be. 

Nintendo Needs More Fighting Games on Switch 2

Many of the Switch 2’s fighting game prospects come from the past because there’s not much confirmed for the future. Invincible VS, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, 2XKO, and Virtua Fighter 6 — the biggest upcoming fighting games — have only been announced for other consoles and PC. It’s possible some will eventually come to Nintendo hardware since the Switch 2 is still a new system and the original Switch got its fair share of late ports, but it’s a little worrying to not see any official Switch 2 confirmation yet. Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage and Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection are both getting native Switch 2 ports, and while they are all technically old games, any and all fighting games are more than welcome to join the fray.

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The PSP had Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny, multiple Tekkens, retro titles, and a whole host of anime fighters. The Vita had Mortal Kombat 9, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Dead or Alive 5 Plus, Street Fighter X Tekken, and, of course, a handful of anime fighters, too. And the Switch had its share of fighting games, from all the old school compilations to contemporary titles like Mortal Kombat 11, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Samurai Shodown, just to name a few. 

The Switch 2’s backwards compatibility inherits that back catalog, and that’s fine for now, but it deserves fighting games that take better advantage of the hardware. Whether they are native ports, big updates, or new titles altogether, the Switch 2 has plenty of opportunities to fill out its fighting game roster with a ton of new and old genre heavyweights. It just needs to wake up in this first round before it’s too late.